Each character has a fund of Will points, arbitrarily set to start at 9 (pending playtest). The main (possibly only) use of Will is to activate Descriptors. If a character ever has 0 Will points, they are out of the scene and must have a Refreshment Scene to restore their Will fund before they can participate in other future scenes.

Descriptors are free-form traits - a word or phrase tagged with an associated die rating. Die ratings are number of dice, not type/sides. All dice in the game have the same number of sides (for now, the default is d10). There might be different categories of Descriptors (Abilities, Relationships, Connections, Values, Equipment, etc.) to aide / help focus decisions about character creation, but mechanically all Descriptors work the same way: spend one point of Will to activate a Descriptor and add its dice to your pool.

Roll dice pools to resolve opposed actions. Before rolling, spend one point of your Will for each Descriptor that contributes dice to your pool. Your Descriptors can contribute dice to your opponent's pool if it makes sense that those Descriptors would work against you. When one of your Descriptors is used against you in this way, add one to your Will.

You and your opponent both roll; whoever rolls the highest number on a single die wins. The number of successes is the number of dice that beat the loser's highest die. (In other words, the loser's high die sets the TN for the winner.)

If both sides have the same highest die, ignore that pair and look at the next two dice. If all the dice are tied, the side who rolled more dice wins, with one success.

If both sides have the same size pools and rolled exactly the same roll then it's a real stalemate, and the GM shifts the situation.

What does success do?

First, the roll decides the fiction. Does Abigail convince Christopher to not attack Bob? Does OB1 get the high ground? Does precious favorite NPC get croaked?

Second, the winner can turn the number of successes they rolled into a Scene Descriptor. To create a Scene Descriptor just say (or write down) what it's called and how many dice it has. These can be invoked (at the cost of 1 Will point) to contribute dice to a pool. A Scene Descriptor disappears when the scene ends, unless someone wants to pay a Will point to make it stick to a character. The idea here is that, if Christopher ties up Bob with 3 successes, Christopher can say “Bob is tied up, 3D,” meaning *in this scene* Bob is tied up. When the scene ends, the Scene Descriptor will evaporate, and Bob will no longer be tied up, assumed to have gotten free in the Background somehow. If Christopher (or Abigail, or even Bob himself!) pays a Will point to make the Descriptor stick, though, then it becomes part of Bob's character, and Bob stays tied up until someone does something to set him loose.

Third, the loser crosses off the box on their Power track equal to the number of successes that the winner rolled. If the loser would rather not cross off a box, they can create an Injury for their character instead. If the box is already crossed off, cross off the next highest available box AND create an Injury equal to the box that was crossed off! If the last (highest) box of the Power track is crossed off, you're out of the scene.

An Injury works just like a Scene Descriptor that's stuck to a character. An Injury lasts until it goes away naturally as a result of the fiction, or until someone does something to get rid of it. You make a Recovery roll against an Injury to get rid of it; just reduce the Injury by the number of successes you roll. (Injuries don't have Power tracks.) Other characters can make Recovery rolls to help you. This can be actual doctoring / first aid (for physical injuries), pep talks / encouragement for “social injuries,” and so on. Successes reduce the severity of the Injury die for die.

[I need a rule for temporary Descriptors becoming permanent]

Players call for refreshment scenes between scenes. You can get one whenever you want, between scenes, but you can't get one in the middle of a scene.

The Power track is fully restored by having a Refreshment scene with another character.

Refreshment scenes also restore your Will if it has fallen below its starting value. If you have more Will than the starting value, you don't lose the extra Will.

I like Eero's rule that when you have a refreshment scene you're letting your guard down. So you get to heal up whenever you want, but when you do the GM gets to escalate the situation.

XP comes from Keys, and is used to buy Advances.

There are two kinds of Keys:

Dramatic Key Framework: Keys of this type describe dramatic motifs

1 XP - The dramatic issue is involved in a scene 2 XP - The character encounters significant challenges related to the theme. 5 XP - The motif progresses. Buyoff (10XP) - The theme is discarded from the game.

Motivation Key Framework: Keys of this type describe psychology

1 XP - The character expresses the motivation 3 XP - The character follows the motivation despite risk, personal cost, or other considerations Buyoff (10XP) - The character opts to let go of the trait represented by the Key

Every 5 XP is an Advance.

You can spend your Advances right away, or save them.

In general, it costs 1 Advance per die to change your character.

So, 1 Advance can move a 1D Descriptor to your Background (or promote a Background to a 1D Descriptor), or promote a 1D Descriptor to 2D, or create a new 1D Descriptor out of thin air (well, out of fictional positioning). A new Key also costs 1 Advance.

It costs 2 Advances to raise or lower a 2D Descriptor one die, 3 Advances to raise or lower a 3D Descriptor one die, and so on.

You can spend an advance to move a 1D Descriptor to your Background.